


Mountains

by Abstract_Reality



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cringey white boy in a club warning, Cryptid!Keith, Just klance being cute with cryptid keith, M/M, Modern AU (ish), enjoy monster lovers, thats literally it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 14:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13977381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abstract_Reality/pseuds/Abstract_Reality
Summary: Lance loves a cryptid named Keith.Based on the post "Date the cryptic being that is full of stars. They float between the universes and bring you stardust from another world. They will always come back to you even when it’s been to long to remember their form. They always return." I basically wanted to play around with the idea that Keith is a creature with a sort of ethereal form because I love my little starboy. It's basically v long and boring but if you like cryptids then would suggest.





	Mountains

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you love my little cryptid son! This was just more of a simple, "I wanna write something without a clear end goal and just run with it" type thing that probably took me way too long to finish. Hope you enjoy it if you choose to read all the way through. Leave me a sentence or two letting me know your feelings. 
> 
> :)

Dirt and pebbles kick up under his swinging feet, hurtling off the cliff in front of him and landing silently amongst the nature below. Lance watches it wordlessly, leaning back into the bench beneath him and breathing deeply. It’s all so...quiet. Peaceful. He doesn’t know what to do with it. He can’t piece it together in his mind. He’s never experienced silence like this. Now there’s just so much of it. He isn’t sure if it’s calming or not. Because on one hand, he’s allowed to think freely without any external clutter. But on the other, having such a big space to think reminds him just how small he really is.

 

It’s pretty breathtaking, but also a little overwhelming.

 

“Never thought I would see you out here.” A voice murmurs behind him. The words are gruff, but the tone is soft. Delicate. Like it’s barely even there.

 

“Never thought there was anything worth seeing out here.” Lance answers, turning his eyes to the bench underneath him. He runs a hand against a large crack on one of the boards gently.

 

“Change your mind yet?” A hooded figure sits next to him, hands stuffed into their pockets. Lance uses his nail to prod at the crack in the boards, noticing that it sits between him and his visitor. 

 

Lance reaches his hand closer to the figure, his fingertips brushing against the crack once more. Almost like he’s stitching together with his touch alone. “Well, it’s certainly is nice. I’d be lying if I said it was better when I didn’t have someone to share it with.”

 

The figure turns, revealing a familiar star-studded smile as he begins to laugh. “Lance, that’s not even a pickup line.”

 

“Why should I have to have grade A material when I’m already with you?” Lance retorts.

 

Keith places a shadowy hand over his own, and Lance almost jumps out of his skin because of how cold the touch is. The stars of Keith’s face twist in a way that lets him know he’s a bit embarrassed by Lance’s reaction, but neither of them pull away. Lance smiles sheepishly at Keith. Gold glitter swims across the boy’s cheeks as he stumbles over his words “That makes sense...seriously though, what do you think?”

 

The mountains are Keith’s favorite place. Every time Lance talks to him about the ‘corporeal world’, Keith talks about the mountains so much he begins to fade. It’s incredibly endearing. Lance fears that speaking down on the thing Keith loves the most will cause him to like, cease to exist or something. Lance shakes his head and laughs, “It’s definitely amazing out here. I can only imagine what you’ve seen of this place. It must have been...astounding.”

 

“Yeah!” Keith exclaims, a bit too quickly. He shrinks back a little, stars drifting over his expression so that Lance can’t tell what he’s feeling. “Man, I wish you could have seen it centuries ago. When there weren’t any roads or people or campsites. I can’t even describe how beautiful it was. You would have loved it!”

 

“Yeah. I bet I would have. I might have liked beaches a little better, but this would have been a cool place. Especially if I got to be here with you again.” Lance smiles, looking into the white stars that make up Keith’s eyes. 

 

Keith purposely ignores Lance’s attempt at romance and continues on with his rant, “Beaches have always looked the same, just take away the boardwalks and add some more rocks. I never bothered with them. They’ve always been boring. Now this? This has always had so much life to it. It’s always changing. A fire wipes away a hundred trees and more green grows through the ash. A mudslide sweeps through and tons of insects are brought to the surface. Eventually a river will make a pond, or a waterfall! There’s endless possibilities.”

 

“Is space not the same thing?” Lance questions. 

 

“No. Not really. Space has so much to it, but I know it all already. It’s not as interesting as this part of the corporeal world. Because I can’t guess what will happen here next.” Keith mumbles, staring down at the trees beneath them.  It’s strange to know that Keith finds something fascinating in Lance’s world. He’s made of the same particles that created the Earth. The same particles in the Milky Way galaxy. The same particles in the universe. And he’s absolutely floored by trees, mesmerized by babbling brooks, captivated by bugs. 

 

The dying sunlight shines in Lance’s eyes, forcing his attention away from the star boy in front of him. It reminds him of how late it is. How much time he’s spent up here waiting on a boy that may not appear. 

 

“Haven’t seen you in a week or so.” Lance’s voice is soft, hesitant. He clears his throat. “Almost started to forget what you looked like.”

 

He plays the last statement off as a joke, but it’s partially true. Lance  _ knows  _ that Keith is a physical manifestation of the cosmos. But sometimes, he can’t remember the features Keith imitates. Can’t remember how tall Keith makes himself. Can’t remember the smile that Keith tries his best create out of shining white stars. He starts to become a hooded shadow in the back of Lance’s mind, an indiscernible figure that he so desperately wants to hold onto. Keith wants Lance to see him in the same way he sees other humans, but Lance barely sees him enough to memorize the figure Keith so desperately tries to show him.

 

“Sorry about that. I have….responsibilities.” Keith tries to squeeze his hand, he can tell. He just can’t feel it. “Time doesn’t really...exist for me. It’s hard to remember to visit you. I check up on you every...well every so often I suppose. It feels frequent, but I guess I can’t really judge that properly.”

 

Lance smiles softly and looks down at Keith’s ‘hand’ on top of his own. Gold and white  spirals swirl back and forth. The movements seem anxious. Lance suddenly feels apologetic. “I’m sorry Keith. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad or anything. I was just trying to make conversation I guess? Trying to get you to talk about what you’ve been up to?”

 

The movements of the galaxies in his hand swirl slower but still continue to move in a nervous manner. He looks up and stares at Keith’s face, watching as gold begins to collect in his ‘cheeks’. He smiles at Keith in an attempt to get him to talk.

 

“Well. I’ve been checking in on a lot of other parts of the cosmos. Watching worlds form, stars die. That sort of thing.” Keith always sounds uncomfortable talking about his part in the universe.

 

“Did you create life anywhere? Y’know, help some aliens evolve so that we can finally have other intelligent life forms in close proximity to us?” Lance questions, curiosity rising to the surface.

 

Keith laughs, “I’m simply a part of the universe. I watch it play its course, Lance. You know that. You  _ also  _ know that even if I  _ did  _ know about other forms of life, I couldn’t tell you.”

 

“I know.” Lance sighs, a little disappointed. Sometimes he wish Keith lived a little bit more on the edge. Told him more cool things about the universe. It’s not like there are any  _ laws  _ in space. At least, not in a legal sense. 

 

“Anyway. I have to get going…” Keith mumbles, standing. Lance jumps up. Keith can’t  _ leave.  _ At least, not yet. Not when they’ve only shared mere minutes together.

 

“Are you sure?” Lance reaches out and places his hand against Keith’s. He can see stars touching his fingertips, lingering for a short moment before Keith gently moves his hand away. It makes Lance’s heart ache.

 

“I’m sorry Lance.” Lance watches the stars and galaxies that swim across Keith’s face. He looks to Keith’s chest, but the shadowy hoodie façade clutters his view of Keith’s heart. He imagines that it’s stirring in the same nervous way that his hands are. Keith reaches over and leaves a kiss on Lance’s lips. Lance closes his eyes, figuring that Keith would do the same if he could. A cold hand comes up to his cheek, fingertips brushing lightly against his cheekbone. 

 

Then, finally, nothing.

 

Lance opens his eyes and stuffs his clenched fists in his jacket pocket. He lingers for just a moment, glancing out at the mountain landscape, before he turns and trudges over to his car. He climbs in the driver’s side and slams the door shut. He isn’t exactly sure what he expected. What he even wanted. But now he’s just angry. Sad. Confused. He knew, deep down, that this would happen. It’s what always happens. And he just has to learn how to live with it, because Keith isn’t human. He may want to be with Lance, but he can’t be available in the way Lance needs him to. Lance shouldn’t be blaming him for getting his hopes up, but he can’t help it. He grips his steering wheel as hot, angry tears stream down his cheeks. A strangled sound makes its way out of his throat as he weakly flops back against his seat. He wants  _ more  _ of Keith, but that desire also makes him feel so  _ guilty.  _ His face becomes hot and wet because of his salty, angry tears. He reaches up and brings down his visor, looking at the small mirror there. His cheeks are red and his eyes are a little puffy, expectedly. He frowns at himself and wonders if Hunk will be home from work when he gets back to their apartment.

 

Lance groans as he reaches over to buckle his seatbelt, silently wishing that he wasn’t so emotional all the time. He puts his hands on his steering wheel and goes to switch it into gear, but he stops when he notices the gold specks across his hands. He frowns and looks up into the mirror, seeing that his lips and cheek are also covered in tiny gold specks. He frowns and closes the visor.

 

He drives away and tries to drown out his thoughts with a sad mixtape.

 

* * *

 

It’s a Friday night and Lance is out having drinks with a couple of his buddies. He brought Hunk along to be his designated driver, because he knows he doesn’t want to take an uber or a bus home tonight. Hunk brought along Shay to keep himself company, though, so he isn’t really engaging much in conversation with Lance and the others. But that doesn’t put Lance in a sour mood. In fact, he’s feeling great.

 

Better than great. Fantastic.

 

Pidge attempts to flirt with some girl at the bar while Matt and Lance discuss the existence of ghosts. Matt believes that there is no possible way for ghosts to exist because there is no evidence. Lance thinks the only reason he believes that is because of his belief about what life after death is.

 

“See yo-you only think ghosts aren’t real because you think that life after death can only be like-purgatory or hell or whatever. But like, what if life after death is just...just a continuation of it all? Like you have a heart attack in your sleep when you’re like, fucking 90 or something, and your body,  _ your fucking body man, _ it  _ dies _ . But then like, your spirit or whatever, just wakes up the next day and does all the things it’s used to doing? Why would there be evidence of daily activities?” Lance raises his brow and points his finger towards Matt (as best as he can with a drink in his hand, at least).

 

_ Man, if Keith heard that little speech, he would have laughed at me for acting like a know-it-all _ . Lance thinks. Then, he frowns and realizes what he just told himself. He takes a drink to hide his displeasure over the thought of Keith and tries his best to not let the thought of Keith ruin his buzz. They haven’t spoken since that night on the mountain a couple weeks ago. Thinking about Keith is just painful right now.

 

Lance turns his attention back to Matt, who nods his head slowly and sips at his drink. “I suppose that could be a valid thought, but then how would they live their normal life? Like don’t you think they would notice that nobody in their environment is responding to them or acknowledging their existence?”

 

“Well you see-” Lance can’t even defend his thoughts before Pidge comes over and decides to interrupt their conversation. She places herself between the two men and places a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Her expression is very serious, and Lance tries his best not to laugh at her like a drunk idiot.

 

“Listen Lance, I’m just gonna cut the bullshit. That hot girl is totally into me, and I think I can get laid.” She whispers excitedly. He raises a brow and makes a ‘so?’ gesture. She frowns and rolls her eyes. “We’ve got a problem though. She has a friend. He’s trying to keep her from coming to my place.”

 

“And?” Lance questions, taking the last sip of his drink. Pidge makes a frustrated noise.

 

“I need you to keep him busy! For like fifteen minutes, I swear. Long enough for an uber to get here.” Lance makes a face of disgust and Pidge responds with puppy dog eyes. He looks at Matt, who pointedly ignores him in order to pretend that he knows nothing about Pidge’s sexual conquests.

 

The woman Pidge has been chatting up for the past hour is beautiful. Her dark brown, curly hair is pulled into a somewhat messy bun. She’s thick and curvy, and she knows how to coordinate an outfit to compliment it. He can’t really tell what her eyes look like in the club, but he’s assuming they’re amber. Exactly Pidge’s type, in other words. The man next to her has an average build. He doesn’t look lanky, but he definitely doesn’t go to the gym. Some of his blonde hair falls out from beneath a baseball cap, allowing Lance some insight into what it looks like. He’s dressed like he just got out of an anthropology lecture and he’s ready to go to the campus cafe to listen to some slam poetry. Exactly not his type, in other words.

 

Lance smiles and shakes their hands in an attempt to be polite. “Hi! I’m Lance!”

 

“I’m Kiera! It’s nice to meet you Lance!” She smiles and nudges her friend in attempt to get him to talk.

 

“I’m James. Cool to meet you.” James looks him up and down carefully.  It makes Lance feel like he’s being examined like a caged animal. He tries his best to look like it doesn’t bother him, but he isn’t sure how convincing he must look.

 

Kiera looks lost for a moment, unsure of how to act now that Lance has joined them at the bar. It makes him anxious, but he tries not to look uncomfortable. Keith always tells Lance that he knows how he feels just by his expression. Kiera clears her throat. “We...uh...we got you guys some drinks!” 

 

She hands Lance and Pidge some drinks, which seems to kick off a conversation between her and Pidge. A conversation that he certainly doesn’t feel invited to. He awkwardly sips at the drink and pretends not to notice James looking over at him every five seconds. 

 

The conversation goes on for a couple minutes. It has something to do with Pidge telling Kiera all about the chemical composition of certain alcoholic beverages. Kiera doesn’t seem interested in the science, but she does seem quite interested in Pidge, considering a smile hasn’t left her lips for the whole five minutes that Pidge has been talking her ear off. The two of them have already finished their drinks, even though Lance has barely finished off half of his own. He’s tempted to tell Pidge to take it easy, but he doesn’t want to embarrass her in front of Kiera. No, that can be for another time.

 

“So, anyway. Sorry I went off on a bit of a tangent there.” Pidge laughs awkwardly, looking down at her phone. Then she locks eyes with Lance and gives James a pointed look. Lance almost chokes on his drink when he realizes she wants him to grab James’s attention. He coughs a little, which makes James look at him whether he wants to or not. He gives James and awkward smile. The song changes.

 

“Oh! I really like this song!” Lance says, faking a smile. He turns to the girls. “You guys wanna  _ dance  _ for a bit?”

 

“I think that’s a great idea Lance!” Pidge speaks up, grabbing Kiera’s hand and giving her a ‘look.’ Kiera smiles back at her and nods excitedly. Pidge and Kiera begin to rush onto the dance floor with Lance and James following about a foot behind. They disappear into the center of dancing drunks almost immediately. James tries to follow them but Lance already knows that  they won’t be found. Which leaves the two boys standing close together, amongst a sea of dancing people. Lance, in an attempt to make the situation less awkward, begins to sway his body back and forth. 

 

Lance sips at his drink and lies, “I’m sure they’ll make their way back to us when they realize they lost us.”

 

James doesn’t seem convinced but lets things be. Even though he’s already pretty close to Lance, he gets bit closer and tries to dance in tune with him. Lance tries his best to back away, but he can’t get far. He hasn’t been this close to another human being, at least in an flirtatious or intimate sense, since he met Keith. He clears his throat and drinks a bit more. “So, uh, do you work?”

 

James raises a brow, clearly not interested in small talk, but shrugs. “I’m interning at a music station. They say that they don’t normally end up hiring interns for full-time work, but that they might consider it for me.”

 

Lance raises both his eyebrows and feigns interest. “That’s cool! I worked for a radio station once while I was doing work study.”

 

“I don’t think that’s really the same thing, but it’s cute.” James makes  _ that  _ face. The one that men use when they try to play off your interests and accomplishments so that they can feel like they know more about something than you do.

 

Lance almost rolls his eyes. “Oh. Ok.”

 

An awkward silence comes over them, and Lance starts to wonder whether or not Pidge and Kiera have managed to make it to their uber. He figures they must have, but he isn’t exactly sure how to lose James now. He continues to dance and tries to pretend he isn’t secretly plotting a way out of this situation. He looks up at James, who gets closer to him and runs his hands down Lance’s arms. 

 

“You know...” James smirks, putting his hands on Lance’s hips, “I don’t really know a lot of  _ exotic  _ beauties like you.”

 

Lance almost pukes at the word ‘exotic’. James acts like it should make Lance feel good about himself, because he gets ‘the honor’ of being considered ‘exotic’. He’s met a million guys who like to think that words like ‘exotic’ are a compliment and he’s never been interested in a single one. 

 

Perhaps there’s a reason.

 

Lance moves out of James’s grasp and laughs awkwardly. He wonders why Kiera considered this guy her friend. Perhaps that’s why she was all the more eager to ditch his ass for Pidge. Lance finishes off his drink and holds it up to James. “I...uh...finished my drink! So I’m gonna go get a...uh...refill..”

 

James gives him an irritated look but tries to play it off. He smiles at Lance. “I’ll buy you a drink. We can walk to the bar together.”

 

Lance is once again trapped. If he says no, James might insist. Or, god forbid, get pushy or belligerent with him. Lance just nods and gives him a shy smile. They start heading to the bar, but it feels like Lance is walking a stage where he’s about to be publicly executed. His throat is dry. His feet feel heavy. James tries to put a hand on his lower back but Lance immediately brings his hand to his back pocket to block it. James looks at him and he tries to play it off as an accident. He pulls out his phone and looks at the time. It’s almost 11. He can use this to his advantage. He fakes an apologetic look and shows James the time. “I am sooo sorry. It’s almost 11. My boyfriend will be just getting off work so I need to make a call to let him know that I went out and that his leftovers from dinner are in the fridge! Again, I’m so sorry. I totally forgot to text him when I left the house and  _ just  _ remembered when I noticed the time.”

 

They stop mere inches from the bar. James takes a few steps back and almost looks...offended. “Boyfriend?”

 

“Oh, yeah.” Lance laughs and gives him the fakest smile he can imagine. “He graduated  a year ago. He has a B.S. in Astrology and works at an observatory as a tour guide. Anyway, I  _ really  _ have to go make that call...so..”

 

Lance pushes his empty glass into James’s hand and rushes away from him before he can press the issue further. He signals at Matt and Hunk when he passes them, before walking out of the club and into the alley next to it. Matt and Hunk join him a minute later, leaving enough time for it to look like a coincidence. 

 

“Why  _ me?!  _ Why do people always be weird around  _ me? _ ” Lance laments, pulling a cigarette pack out of his tight jeans and putting one in his mouth angrily. Hunk pats him on the back after his cigarette is lit, careful not to hit him too hard and make him sputter.

 

“Sorry that you got put in whatever situation that was buddy. But you can’t just act like you’re some kind of disaster date magnet!” He tries to be comforting, but it doesn’t really work.

 

Lance takes a drag and frowns at the ground. He flicks his cigarette and watches the ashes fall onto his sneaker. His mom always used to complain about finding ashes on his clothes when he was a teenager. And now Keith is the one who complains about it. Who even cares about some fucking ash on  _ his  _ clothes? He angrily runs a hand through his hair and takes another hit of his cigarette. He doesn’t even know why he started thinking about Keith but now it’s just made his shitty mood even shittier. Man, that whole thing killed his vibe. Now he’s stuck feeling tired and frustrated. Hunk places a hand on his shoulder and makes Lance look him in the eyes with a gentle shake. Hunk raises an eyebrow, and Lance frowns. 

 

Lance throws the cigarette on the floor and crushes it under his heel with a sigh. His head is spinning. He’s way too drunk to be dealing with all this internal turmoil right now. He shoves his hands in his jacket pockets, “Can I go wait in the car for you guys? I’ll give you money to pay off my tab.”

 

He starts to pull his wallet out of his pocket but Hunk stops him. Hunk puts the keys to his car in his hand gently. “Don’t worry about it. You can just spot me next time.”

 

“Thanks Hunk.” Lance smiles, giving his best friend a grateful look. The three of them leave the alleyway. Hunk and Matt go back into the bar, and Lance heads to Hunk’s car down the street. Lance looks down at the keys in his hand and finds a gold speck on his palm.

 

He frowns and wipes his hand against his jeans.

 

* * *

 

Lance tosses a coffee cup into the trashcan next to his desk. It lands on top of his discarded, half-empty pack of cigarettes and an empty bag of gummy worms, making a crunching noise that catches him off-guard momentarily. He rubs his eyes, chastising himself for being scared by his own actions. He must be tired if he’s scaring himself, though. He looks at the clock. Midnight.

 

“Ah shit.” He mutters. He didn’t think he had spent that long on his assignment. He rubs his eyes and turns off his desk lamp. “I guess I should go to bed at some point.”

 

He walks out of his room quietly, so as not to disturb Hunk, and quickly uses the restroom to pee and brush his teeth. When he makes his way back into his room, he almost has a heart attack when he sees a figure sitting on the edge of his bed. 

 

Then he realizes it’s just Keith.

 

Lance frowns and pretends not to notice him, despite being visibly shaken up by his sudden appearance. He pulls up his covers and climbs under without saying a word. It’s petty, he knows. But he’s upset. It’s been nearly three weeks. And after that departure? He could have at least spared him a few minutes here and there.

 

“Lance. Don’t be like that. Please.” Keith’s voice is softer than normal. 

 

“Be like what Keith?” Lance grumbles, throwing himself down on the bed. He doesn’t pull the covers over himself. Deep down, he still doesn’t want to shut Keith out entirely.

 

“Angry at me. I’ve told you, Lance. Sometimes I just  _ can’t  _ visit for a while. I know you couldn’t possibly understand the position that I-”

 

“You’re right Keith. I don’t understand.” Lance looks over at Keith, who’s hiding underneath the hood of the jacket he’s materialized for himself. Lance has always hated that about Keith’s form, the jacket he uses to hide away from everything. It’s like he can’t even trust Lance long enough to stop the ‘dark, hooded figure schtick.’ Lance isn’t like everyone else in the world, he knows Keith. At least, he likes to think he does. “I don’t know what you do because you don’t tell me.”

 

“Lance you know that I-”

 

“Can’t tell me. I get it. It’s whatever. I just figured you could at least treat me, like, yknow, someone you like instead of some...some... random!” Lance throws his arms up into the air.

 

It gets quiet. So quiet Lance can swear he can hear Keith thinking. 

 

Lance met Keith because Keith has always been curious of this world. The life in it, the way it changes. It’s all interesting and exciting to Keith. Sometimes Keith pretended to be the ominous shadow in the alley way just to watch human nightlife. Sometimes he was the monster in the closet because he enjoyed watching people sleep. It’s why he liked the hoodie façade. Nobody would pay mind to the hooded figure in the alley out of fear. Anybody could dismiss a ‘figure’ in their closet as a jacket with a weird shadow. But Lance walked through the dark alleyways. He searched through the shadows of his closet. He discovered the truth behind the shadows. He discovered Keith. 

 

So it hurts twice as much when Keith likes to pretend with Lance and act like he’s just someone passing by.

 

“Lance. I admit that I’m not sure why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling.” Keith turns towards him. “And I don’t know how to make you  _ stop  _ feeling the way you’re feeling. But I hope that it helps you to know that you aren’t just some...human to me.”

 

Lance frowns and drops his arms. “That’s sweet Keith…but it doesn’t just take away how I feel.”

 

Stars swirl on Keith’s face. This conversation seems to confuse him or make him uncomfortable. Perhaps both.  “I’m not sure what to do then, Lance.”

 

Lance sighs and flops back on his bed. He stares up at the ceiling and frowns. “Me either.”

 

“Then why do you feel so strongly about it?”

 

“I don’t know!”

 

“Neither do I.”

 

Lance huffs. He sits up again and brings his legs to his chest. “I guess...if I had to try and explain...it’s  _ because _ you don’t know? Like, I understand that you don’t really understand how humans are. I don’t  _ expect  _ you to understand. You haven’t had any _ real  _ contact with humans besides me, so you obviously can’t be an expert. Plus from what you’ve said about beings like you...you aren’t concerned with humans any more than you are the rest of the galaxy. But it’s just really hard for me sometimes. Because you and I just can’t seem to get on the same page. I don’t wanna fuck up...whatever this is. And I feel like it’s fucking itself up because we can’t...click or whatever.”

 

Lance groans, wrapping his arms around his legs and burying his face in them.

 

“Lance.” Keith states. Lance looks up, and Keith puts a hand on his arm. It brushes gently against his cheek, causing both his face and arm to feel cold. “I’m sorry that you feel that way, Lance. I didn’t even know that we had to...be on the same page for you to be comfortable with this. I could have probably put in a little more effort to understand your emotions, so that you didn’t have to feel like this. And I didn’t. Because I just thought that I knew what to do?”

 

Lance smiles. It makes him happy to know that Keith is trying to understand him. On an emotional level, at least.

 

“Thanks Keith.” 

 

“For?” Lance laughs and moves to cross his legs, forcing Keith to move his hand to Lance’s knee.

 

“For the apology, dummy.” Lance puts his hand on Keith’s. Keith makes a noise that sounds a lot like nervous laughter.

 

“Oh. Right.”

 

“Mind spending some time with me tonight?” Lance asks, hope coating his offer. Stars drift over Keith’s face, and Lance isn’t sure if he’s ‘blushing’ or just trying to find a way to turn Lance down.

 

“Maybe for a little while.” Keith says, moving up the bed to sit next to Lance. Lance smiles and pulls his laptop off his bedside table.

 

“Alright then. What sci-fi classic should I introduce you to next? The Fifth Element? K-PAX? Aliens? Or maybe something more modern? I own Pacific Rim. And the prequel to Aliens, Prometheus. But that one is kind of a bore in the beginning.” Lance plugs in the thumb drive that contains his legendary movie stash. It’s quite the collection of science fiction films, and he’s very proud of it.

 

“I don’t know what any of those movies are. At all.” Keith laughs. “So pick your favorite.”

 

“My favorite? They’re all my favorite Keith. But if I had to choose…” He hovers over K-PAX for a second before deciding on making it tonight’s film. He moves his laptop a little further down the bed and scoots closer to Keith. They’re centimeters apart, and Lance can feel the cold coming off of Keith’s form. Keith reaches over and places his hand on top of Lance’s, and the beginning credits come on screen.

 

Lance gets about ten minutes into the movie before he starts to yawn, and he adjusts his body so that he’s sitting against his pillows a little more. It’s much more comfortable for his tired body. He vaguely wonders if Keith ever feels tired, or if he even has a word for the feeling. Suddenly, Keith laughs when Prot begins to explain how the people of K-PAX know how to travel faster than the speed of light. Lance wonders what that means about Prot’s words. Is Keith laughing because he finds the ideas ridiculous, or because he thinks that it’s funny that Prot is trying to explain a complicated concept to a human being? He almost asks which it is, but stops himself because he knows that Keith isn’t allowed to say if Prot has the right idea. It would go against his belief that all species need to figure out science for themselves.

 

Lance rubs his eyes and tries to focus on the movie, pushing his curiosity to the side. He’s only managed to get Keith to stay long enough to watch a movie twice before. He can’t just fuck up the experiencing by being distracted the whole time. He turns to the side and props his pillow up against the side of his face. Keith looks over at him, and Lance smiles up at him. Keith laughs a little bit and refocuses on Lance’s laptop. Lance does the same. 

 

After another ten minutes, he closes his eyes a bit and tries to block out the annoying light of his laptop for a moment. His eyes feel strained, and tired.

 

He must fall asleep, because he wakes up a couple hours later, and the room is completely dark. Keith is gone, and his laptop is back on his bedside table. Lance groans, slinking deeper under his covers. He reaches over to the side of the bed where Keith sat and mentally scolds himself for falling asleep. He should have known he would fall asleep, but he really wishes he hadn’t. He brings his hand back towards his face, prepared to get a couple more hours of sleep. But before he can fall asleep, he notices that his hand sparkles in the moonlight. He sits up and turns on his bedside light, only to find a giant, human shaped blotch of gold ‘glitter’ on his sheets. He laughs and turns the light off, flopping back down.

 

Fucking Keith.

 

* * *

 

“I said I’m  _ fine,  _ Hunk. Go on your date.” Lance complains, gesturing at the man in front of him. Hunk gives him a dirty look and crosses his arms. It wrinkles his button up.

 

“I can’t believe you just went off and got into some stupid fight, Lance! What if you got a concussion? Or broke something? Or hit your head on the concrete?” Hunk sighs, throwing his arms up in the air. “I just don’t even know where to start.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. You can give me the fifth degree when you get back.” Lance groans. He takes the frozen gogurt away from his eyebrow to look up at Hunk. He gives him a serious look, one that says ‘ _ I dare you to try and stay home to take care of me. It will be the worst decision of your life.’  _

 

Hunk makes a frustrated noise and grabs his keys from the dish on the coffee table. He points at Lance, “I’ll be back in two hours. If you die on this couch, I swear!”

 

“Okay! Okay! I’ll die in the bathtub like a real drama queen.” Lance laughs. He sinks back into the couch and pushes the gogurt back onto his face. He wishes they had frozen peas, it would probably sooth more of his injuries. And look slightly less stupid.

 

Hunk leaves with a simple goodbye and a threatening look. Lance waves him off with his free hand, before picking up the tv remote. He settles on watching a cooking show and scrolling through Twitter. It’s a pretty great plan, at least for the first twenty minutes. But then he starts feeling hungry, and the gogurt on his face has started to melt and drop water on his cheek. Granted, it feels pretty great on the bruised bits, not so great on any other bits. So, he has to get up. No matter how much he doesn’t want to.

 

He rolls off the couch and onto the floor, lying there for a moment. Then he forces himself ignore his desire to roll into the kitchen and stands. He throws the gogurt into the freezer and searches for something microwaveable. There’s tv dinners. Chicken alfredo, lasagna, salisbury steak. He frowns and pushes them to the side. Hopefully, he can find something besides those. They burn too easily in the microwave, and he doesn’t feel like powering through a meal that looks like coal on the sides. Underneath those, there’s gogurt. Popsicles. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Then, he finds it. The crown jewel of their shitty freezer. Bagel bites. Lance grabs the package from the bottom and pretends that ice hasn’t collected on the bottom of the box. There’s a bag inside, the bagel bites are probably fine. He rips it open and lets about two dozen bagel bites fall onto the cleanest plate available, before tossing it into the microwave and punching in his best estimate for a cooking time.

 

“And Hunk thinks that I can’t take care of myself.” Lance mutters, pulling in his phone out of his pocket. He sends Pidge some memes while he waits for the microwave to start beeping. When it does, he pockets the phone once more and drags the plate out, using stacks of napkins as makeshift oven mitts. 

 

When he walks back into the living room, he’s surprised to see Keith sitting on the couch. He’s staring at the TV, and Lance isn’t exactly sure if he’s noticed that Lance has walked back into the room. Lance just shrugs and heads over to the couch, plopping down next to the star boy. Keith looks over at Lance and the stars in his face twist into a weird formation that makes it hard for Lance to know what he’s thinking.

 

“Hey there.” Lance mutters awkwardly, putting the plate of bagel bites onto the coffee table in front of them.

 

“What happened to your face?” Keith asks. Lance makes a face but laughs.

 

“Genetics, probably. Being  _ this  _ handsome can really only be achieved by the right combination of chromoso-”

 

“You know what I mean Lance.”

 

Lance frowns and rubs the back of his neck. Keith reaches a shadowy hand up to touch the cut on his eyebrow. The cold feels nice, but it also stings, so Lance flinches a little. He gives Keith a sheepish smile. “I just got into it with some guy today.”

 

“I’m not exactly sure what that means.” Keith admits, fingertips ghosting over the bruises on Lance’s cheekbone. Lance blushes a little at the touch but doesn’t move away.

 

“Well. Okay. So I was in the parking lot at the grocery store. And this woman and this man were walking in front of me. And the lady is searching through her purse, when suddenly, she drops a package of gum and it falls to the ground. So I, being the kind person I am, pick it up and rush after her. She takes it from me and says thanks, but then the guy saw my tattoo when I handed it to her,” Lance points at the geometric rainbow tattoo on his arm, “and tells me that ‘some faggot shouldn’t be talking to his girlfriend.’ So I told him that he could go fuck himself because he wasn’t a part of what was happening. And he punched me.”

 

“He only punched you once?” Keith asks, brushing over a couple bruises on Lance’s jaw. Lance laughs. 

 

“No. I punched him back, and soon we started fighting in the middle of the parking lot. Hunk had to break it up and force me into the car before any security showed up. But we managed to hit each other quite a few times.” Lance shrugs and grabs a bagel bite. Keith drops his hand from Lance’s face to his own lap.

 

“Oh. Well does it hurt? Now?” 

 

“Of course it hurts Keith. I got punched in the face. Multiple times.” Lance shoves the whole bagel bite in his mouth. He tries his best to talk with his mouth full. “But it was worth it. There’s nothing I love more than beating the shit out of some loud mouth.”

 

“I can’t really say I understand.” Keith sounds confused. And worried. Lance frowns and swallows his food. He puts a hand over Keith’s.

 

“He thought he could be an asshole. And I proved him wrong.” Lance bites the inside of his cheek. “Are you...mad at me?”

 

“I’m not exactly sure what this feeling is. I suppose I’m just glad that you are still alive.” Keith looks at him, and Lance blushes. 

 

Lance smiles and grips Keith’s hand as much as he can. “Well. Thanks, for caring about whether or not I’m dead. Do you..wanna sit here and watch the cooking channel with me for a bit?”

 

Keith smiles, “Of course I care about whether or not you die, Lance. And sure. Only for a little bit, though.”

 

Lance smiles back and gets comfortable, before explaining to Keith what a cooking show it. Keith listens intently, excited to learn a little bit more about Lance’s world. It feels strangely domestic to Lance. Sitting on the couch together. Watching boring daytime television. Having a fairly normal conversation. Being with Keith and being able to do simple, ‘couple’ things makes his heart feel full. Makes him feel like the two of them are like any other couple. 

 

After about a half an hour, Keith stands. Lance gets up immediately, knocking his shin into the table and letting out a small hiss of pain. Keith lets out a small laugh, and Lance tries to play it off. Keith touches his hand to Lance’s bruises once more, “Sorry, Lance. But I have to go.”

 

“I get it. You’ve probably got a lot of cosmic stuff going on out there that you need to take care of.” Lance smiles and places his hand over Keith’s. He secretly wishes that he could keep Keith’s hand cradled to his face forever. But he knows that it could never happen. Keith leans in, and Lance closes his eyes to accept the short kiss that always precedes Keith’s immediate departure. Then, when Keith is gone, he opens his eyes and flops back onto the couch to stare at the ceiling. 

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he catches sight of sparkles and lets out a small laugh. “Glitter is a chronic problem, Keith.”

 

* * *

 

“So. Can I...tell Hunk about you?” Lance asks hesitantly, glancing from his textbook to look up at Keith sitting across the room. Keith seems surprised by the question and tears his gaze away from whatever he’s paying attention to on the TV. It looks like a European movie.

 

“Tell him...what?” Keith asks. The stars in his face gather around the stars in his eyes so that Lance can’t tell how he feels about his question. Lance shrugs and sets his pen down.

 

“That you...exist. And that we’re sort of...dating?” Lance isn’t exactly sure what he wants to tell Hunk. But he can tell that Hunk knows that something is going on with him. And Lance doesn’t want to get himself into a position where he’s forced to lie to his best friend. 

 

Keith seems to be thinking for about a minute before answering. “I mean. You could tell him. My existence is already known by you. Not much would change if he knew. But. Would he even believe you?”

 

“Well. It  _ would  _ sound pretty crazy.” Lance mumbles. “What if...you were there? When I tell him that you exist, you can like, be there as proof.”

 

“It sounds like a plausible assumption that he would believe you if you gave him some sort of proof.” Keith muses. 

 

“So. You’re willing to show him what you look like?”

 

“I don’t see why not. He would know I exist either way. This way, he doesn’t think you’re hallucinating.”

 

“Well, then you can show up one of these days while he’s here and we can give him the good news.” Lance smiles, looking back down at his textbook and flicking a gold speck off of his thumb.

* * *

 

Lance balances the second pizza and garlic knots in his left hand while he locks the front door, laughing at some lame joke that Hunk tells him. When he turns back towards the larger man, he finds that Hunk has stopped in the small hall between the kitchen space, front door, and living room. He frowns. “Uh. Hunk. Buddy. I know the pizza looks good but you can’t stop to pull a slice  _ right here _ , man.”

 

Hunk looks back at him with wide eyes and a hushed tone. “Turn around slowly, unlock the door, and open it.”

 

“What?” Lance laughs nervously.

 

“Dude there’s a fucking  _ ghost  _ in our living room.  _ Hurry and open the door.”  _

 

“A ghost?” Lance questions. Lance pushes past Hunk almost immediately, thinking the other man must be delusional. Or that he left something upturned on the table again.

 

Then he sees Keith and laughs.

 

“Lance! Lance it’s not funny we need to get  _ the fuck out of here man. _ ” Hunk tugs on the back of his jacket and Lance can hear the shaking of a set of keys. He turns around and puts a hand up to calm his friend.

 

“Okay. Okay. This is gonna sound really weird but...you’re never gonna believe this and the timing for this is  _ way off, _ ” Lance makes sure that Keith can hear that last bit even if he knows Keith won’t really understand how awful his timing is, “but I can explain what’s going on here.”

 

“You...can…?” Hunk questions, gripping to the pizza box in his hand for dear life.

 

“Yeah. That isn’t a ghost. It’s uh. My boyfriend…?” Lance muses. Hunk gives him a bewildered look. 

 

“Boyfriend?” Hunk looks over at Keith’s shadowy, shimmery form. Then he looks at Lance. Then down at the pizza box in his hands.

 

Then he sits down in the middle of the hallway, pizza in his lap, and stares off into space. Lance panics a little, wondering if his friend is just going to faint. Or die sitting up. Or what if he already did faint and die sitting up? And then at his funeral they’ll have to have a standing coffin because his legs will be too stiff and Lance will have to live forever knowing his best friend died of fright in the most embarrassing death pose ever.

“Is...he okay?” Keith asks, taking a couple steps forward. Hunk looks over in his direction and then back at Lance.

 

“He...can talk?” Hunk squeaks out, suddenly looking very nauseated.

 

“Yeah. He can do  _ a lot  _ of things, Hunk.” Lance attempts to joke around, wiggling his eyebrows for emphasis. 

 

Hunk gets this disgusted look on his face, “Ew Lance! I’ve told you a million times that I don’t need to hear about you having sex! Especially when it comes to having sex with...with...uhhh…?” He turns to Keith. “I’m sorry but what are you?”

 

The stars cloud Keith’s eyes, making his expression unreadable. But Lance is pretty sure he’s nervous. Or embarrassed. “The best way to describe my presence would be….an observer. More specifically, an observer of the universe. Usually I am composed of millions of separate atomic particles that exist together in various galaxies. But in this form I look like a young man in a sweater that Lance calls ‘Keith’ for reasons unknown to me.”

 

Hunk takes a second to absorb the information before looking up at Lance with an accusatory expression. “You...you named him?”

 

“Yeah,” Lance scoffs a little, shrugging his shoulders, “what about it?”

 

“Did you choose Keith because of...Keith Ferguson?” Hunk squints at him a little, and Lance feels sweat start to form on his brow.

 

Lance laughs awkwardly and hefts Hunk up from the floor by the elbow, pushing him towards the living room. “You’re funny buddy. Good one.”

 

Hunk doesn’t have time to respond before he’s pushed in front of Keith, who extends a hand towards him. “It’s nice to meet you, Hunk.”

 

“It’s...nice to meet you too?” Hunk hesitantly puts a hand forward to grab Keith’s hand. The second he manages to grab Keith’s shimmery form, Hunk lets out a tiny squeak and tightens his grip. “Wow! You like, actually exist! Not like...I didn’t doubt your existence or anything I just...didn’t expect you to be like, solid! And you’re hands are so  _ cold!  _ Like it feels like I’m holding a popsicle or something...and is that...the little dipper on your cheek?”

 

Lance walks over and clasps a hand on Hunk’s shoulder, causing him to pull away from Keith immediately. Keith looks down at his hand, the stars in his cheek swirling in a strange manner. Almost as if Keith is puzzled at the presence of his own self. Lance clears his throat, “Hunk, pal. There will be time for 20 questions later.”

 

“How do you expect me not to ask the literal personification of a universe a billion freaking questions?” Hunk asks in an overwhelmed tone. 

 

“Because I’m sure Keith has a billion things to do in space and will probably leave soon, we don’t want to keep him waiting. Plus, trust me, I’ve probably asked him every question you’re thinking of right now and I will have the answer.” Lance says, patting Hunk on the back warmly to help him calm down a little.

 

“Yes. I actually have many things to do in space. So. I suppose I will...leave now?” Keith looks over at Lance. “Are you...okay with that?”

 

“Yeah, babe. I’ll be looking out for you.” Lance smiles, taking Keith’s hand gently. Keith leans over and presses a small kiss to Lance’s cheek, before promptly materializing into thin air per usual.

 

Hunk, having just watched the whole display, flops back on the couch, pizza box perched on his stomach. He looks to have aged a billion years in the past twenty minutes. Lance flops down next to him and takes out a slice of sweet, sweet cheesy goodness from his own pizza box rested on his knees. He munches quietly for a few moments to allow Hunk to process things.

 

“You...have an alien boyfriend..?”

 

“Well, he’s not an alien per se. But pretty much.

 

“And he just...disappears into thin air whenever he pleases?”

 

“Yeah most of the time.”

 

“And the first thing you reveal to me about him...is that you two have had sex...you’ve had sex with an alien.”

 

“A lady never kisses and tells.”

 

Hunk looks over at him and gives him a narrow look. To which Lance just laughs and hands him a slice of pizza. Hunk begrudgingly takes it and stuffs it in his mouth. Halfway through the slice he looks over at him and makes a gesture towards his cheek. “You uh, you’ve got a little uh…”

 

Lance wipes the back of his hand against his cheek and pulls it away. There’s glitter there. He snorts. “Yeah, he’s big on arts and crafts.”

 

Hunk raises his eyebrows and replies sarcastically, “Oh yeah. Because the first thing aliens say in movies are ‘ _ Take me to your local hobby lobbyyyy!’ _ ” 

 

The two of them immediately burst out into laughter. Like, tight chest and tear streak laughter. It stops when Hunk practically chokes on part of his pizza and promptly chugs half a two liter of pepsi, but the giggles still break a short silence from time to time.

 

“I’m glad you met him Hunk..even if its kind of strange for me to be dating a literal ethereal being.” Lance looks at Hunk in the eyes and gives him a small smile. “You’re a really good friend Hunk. And I’m really glad you didn’t faint.”

 

Hunk sighs happily and grabs Lance in a lazy one armed hug. “Me too buddy. And I mean, I’ll support any relationship you’re in as long as it’s healthy.”

 

“Yeah, it’s why I told you before Pidge.”

 

“Yeah well you might wanna wait a bit for that. Cause as soon as you tell her, you know she’ll never stop playing the X-Files theme when you walk into a room.”

 

“Yeah, I know.”


End file.
